In 1925, 77-year-old Uncle Jimmy Thompson played fiddle on the fifth floor of the National Life and Accident Insurance Company building in Nashville, launching what became the longest running radio broadcast in American history. This episode treats the Grand Ole Opry as a communal campfire and traces how George D. Hay, the self-styled solemn old judge, curated DeFord Bailey, Uncle Dave Macon and the Fruit Jar Drinkers, and coined the name in 1927 as a playful jab at NBC's grand opera hour.

The conversation follows the show's nomadic years through the Hillsboro Theater, Dixie Tabernacle and War Memorial Auditorium, the 50,000-watt clear channel signal that reached nearly 30 states, and the 1943 move to the Ryman. It covers the gingham dress code Jeannie Seely defied, the drum ban, Elvis, the Byrds, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash smashing fo ...